Hucklebuck recalls happy days of showbands and romance
A scene from Hucklebuck at Clonmel Junction Festival.
On the poster for writer/director Jack Reardon’s play Hucklebuck, which is about a night at a dancehall in rural Ireland in the summer of 1969, it says “directed by the son of a Dromkeen couple”. The Co Limerick parish reference hints at the fact that the playwright’s parents met and fell in love – as many Irish couples did a generation or two ago – while jiving in front of a showband.
“A version of the play, particularly the first half, is based on my parents,” says Reardon. “My dad arrived at the hall slightly late because he had to help his mum at home in the pub. His friends had been drinking across the road, so he said to himself, ‘Well, I won't bother going over to them because they're all drunk, I'll go across and I'll ask a girl to dance.’
